Literature

LITERARY REVIEW Deborah Bathurst, Sherborne Literary Society

Expectation by Anne Hope (Doubleday 2019), £8.99 Sherborne Times Reader Offer Price of £7.99 from Winstone’s Books

Atale of friendship, selfishness, betrayal, anger, grief, disappointment and forgiveness.

The story is set in 2010. The opening, however, is a flashback to 2004 where a trio of 29-year-old women, Hannah, Cate and Lissa, are sharing a house in East London. It is a golden interlude for them as young, single people with freedom to experience and enjoy life, before the responsibilities and compromises of work and families take over. They have the leisure to indulge in all that cosmopolitan London has to offer - theatre, film, exhibitions, parks, markets, and restaurants offering an array of cuisine from many different countries. The world is at their feet.

By flitting between the present (2010) and the past, aspects of the women’s respective histories are filled in while the present unfolds. Hannah and Cate are friends from school. Both academic, Cate went to Oxford and Hannah to Manchester University where she and Lissa become friends.

Hannah has a successful career and marries Nathan, an academic. They struggle with the destructive effect that unsuccessful IVF has on their marriage. Cate is married to Sam and has a child. She has been prone to depression since the death of her mother in her teens and develops post-natal depression. Lissa is a talented actress and beautiful. She suffers the difficulties experienced by so many actors in getting parts, and the struggle to make a living from a variety of poorly paid part-time jobs while ‘resting.’ She finally lands the part of Yelena in a short but successful run of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Despite excellent reviews, at this point she decides to give up acting and go to live abroad. Her misfortune is to love the wrong man. In addition to IVF and post-natal depression, many other aspects of life are touched on including broken relationships, abortion, in-laws, feminism, lesbianism and the death of parents. There is a good deal of alcohol consumed resulting in many arguments which are often extremely damaging.

The book gathers pace as it progresses and draws the reader in. Some characters are better evolved than others. In particular, Lissa and her mother, Sarah, an artist, teacher, feminist and Greenham Common activist.

The subtitle on the book cover: ’What happened to the women we were supposed to become?’ indicates unfulfilled expectations. Although these expectations are not expressed specifically during their young lives, clearly events have not turned out as they would have wished and there is disenchantment, discontent and disappointment in their relationships and careers by the time they reach their mid-30s. The final chapter is in 2018 when they arrange to meet again after several years. By this time, they are in their early 40s and are becoming more settled and accepting of their lives, whilst more forgiving.

In the end, it’s about the sometimes painful process of growing up and coming to terms with life.

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